Night Falls
by ArrancarMaiden
Summary: 2nd in the Destiny Changed, Innocence Lost series. Xan returns to Sunnydale. Character death, not Xan though.


**Disclaimer: I am just a lowly fan fiction writer, who loves Bleach and Buffy, and is borrowing the characters for some playtime and will return them without any harm to the proper owners. No money will not be made off this, and what crazy person would actually give away hard earned money to such a sucky writer such as I? Please don't sue me, I need to save as much money as I can to actually pay for my daily bread and water. **

**Night Falls, a bleach crossover**

The Hellmouth attracted many creatures, some harmless but most not. The majority, vampires roamed the streets, free to hunt. In the next night, many an innocent citizen would fall and most likely be turned. There was no one to stop this from happening, except one person. Before the Slayer came the vampires had no one to fear except their masters, but no longer, and vampires had to start being more subtle and cunning, or they were quickly dusted.

Buffy Summers was one of the most powerful and effective slayers the last century had brought, or even of all time. She was up there with Nikki Woods, the slayer that once had been in charge of protecting New York before a Master Vampire had ended her career. Nikki Woods had been one of the slayers to actually live past a few years after being Called, and she had even been able to have a son. That son, Robin Wood, was a Vampire Hunter, but he will never cross paths with Buffy Summers, unlike other kinder universes.

The reason Buffy Summers had lived so long was partly because of her friends. Buffy was not alone, she had her friends with her to help. Help her deal with the burden, help her to survive. When she had come to Sunnydale, the Master had drowned her. But it was through the actions of Jesse McNally that she was resuscitated, and destroyed the Master. Jesse, along with his friend Willow Rosenburg, fought alongside the Slayer and researched threats along with her Watcher Rupert Giles. In another universe, Jesse would have been taken and turned by Darla, and then accidently dusted by his best friend Xander Harris. But here and now, it was not to be. Xander, as a child, had been murdered by his father years before, and was never coming back. Both Jesse and Willow missed him in the years that followed, but they tried to move on. Eventually they did, but Willow had always had a sense that something was wrong. That something that should not have happened had happened, and the world was to suffer for it. How right she was, even though she was never to know.

****

It was a peaceful morning, on the outside. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, the birds were chirping and everything was as it should be in Sunnydale, California. The mayor had everything tied up and planned, everything was under control. Well, mostly everything. There was that little problem called the Slayer, Buffy Summers. She was disrupting the peace that he had set up in his little town, and some of his plans had been ruined by her arrival. So obviously, she needed to go. Then everything would be better.

Mayor Wilkins sat at his desk, deep in thought. What should he do? Earlier, he had been approached by one of the top men of a rather powerful figure. Aizen, traitor to the organization known as the Soul Society, had set his plans in motion. Plans that he had had for years, that had been in the motion for longer than anyone could imagine. After leaving Soul Society, he had used Hōgyoku. to turn ordinary Hollows, souls that had lost their heart, into Arrancar, basically a hybrid between Hollow andShinigami. The most powerful of these became the Espada, the elite.

The Espada with the lowest numbers were the most powerful, and Wilkins had been approached the other day by one that identified himself as the Zero Espada. Xan as he insisted to be called, had been proceeded to hand over a letter that requested an alliance, or in the very least a treaty, to be formed between himself and Aizen. In the letter, Aizen said that he recognized the benefits of such an alliance, Wilkins to control the Hellmouth and Aizen the spiritual world. There were promises to never betray or work against the other, or to infringe on the territory of the other (Aizen had no interest in controlling the Hellmouth).And to come to aid or to help whenever it was needed, in Aizen's smooth words.

Now Wilkins knew of the advantages that an alliance or treaty with Aizen would be. While the Mayor himself was very powerful in spiritual pressure, or reiatsu, he knew his limits. And his office door had opened to reveal a young looking man, looks wise at least; he knew that he himself could be squashed like a bug by Aizen, even his Zero Espada.

The young man that identified himself as the Zero Espada, who said his name was Xan, short for Alexander Harris, did not really look the part. He was what would have made women short of breath, like the speechless and tongue-tied secretary that had let him in. He was handsome, with medium length dark brown hair and brown eyes, had a swimmer's build with muscle but not too much muscle, and was wearing clothes that were all white except for a black strip that outlined the edges, and a red cloth that signified his rank.

But for those that could tell, he could not be mistaken as human. The remains of his Hollow mask was in the form of a small white earring and a part that curved around his ear and went down his neck partially. There also was a little bit that encircled his neck, much like a necklace or a thin collar. Never minding the Hollow hole, this was at the moment not visible because of his clothes, that were located in his stomach. Of course, in his natural form, one would have to ignore his ability to walk through walls. But at the moment he was using a gigai**.**

Besides these, the cold and inhuman look in his eyes, a glint that showed that he did not have human emotions like humans did. Granted, the Mayor could tell that he did feel more than many of his kind did, but there was a visible lack of emotion that ordinary humans thought of as commonplace.

Alexander Harris. After some pushing, he had revealed that to be the name he had had as a human. And that he had once lived in Sunnydale. The Mayor knew that name, after looking at some of his records after the hint of familiarity hit. It was the name of the young boy who had murdered by his very own father a few years back. He should know, since the story had been a big tradegy that had managed to get passed the state of denial and ignorance the citizens of Sunnydale had. He himself had spoken at the funeral. But it was only, oh about five or six years ago. That meant, that this Arrancar had to have evolved fast as a Hollow, and therefore was very powerful. Of course, the whisper that escaped the self-imposed shields around the Arrancar hinted at that.

The power was enough to bring the Mayor to his knees and render him speechless, if all of it was released and not held back like it was. Someone with that power had to serve someone even more powerful, logic said. And Aizen, as Xan hinted at, was a hundred times more powerful.

Xan was there now, standing quietly and so still that he could have been mistaken for a statue in the corner. His emotionless gaze, betraying nothing of what he was thinking, fixed out the small window of the office. Nothing betrayed any emotions, any feelings he might have had at the moment. He was patiently waiting for what the Mayor was going to do next.

Wilkins cleared his throat, leaning back in his chair and crossing his hands. Xan stepped forward a few feet into the light, and stopped, emotionless gaze steady on the Mayor. "Well, my boy, I think that we can come to an agreement. But there is one thing that can be done, to show your commitment, perhaps."

Xan nodded his head once, and listened as the Mayor made his request.

****

Buffy had just gotten done with her patrol. Disappointingly, there had been very little vampires or other frightful nightlife to come out and greet her, and she was bored. Tonight sucked, if she didn't know any better there was something that was keeping all the little vampires and demons safety tucked in their bed, metaphorically of course. Now that was a disturbing thought. Did little vampires and demons get tucked in at night, and read stories of blood and massacre before they went to sleep? Were they given snacks of blood and gore by their demony parents before they went to sleep? Ugh, bad image.

Buffy shuddered, and got the image that had brought to her mind out of her head. Something was seriously wrong. The night had been too quiet the whole night, there were no sign of any nightlife, bug, animal, or birds (there was at least a little bit of noise of these on these nights), and there was an impending sense of doom. Also, her scalp had been prickling the whole night like she was being watched, yet could find no sign of anything.

Suddenly there was a rustle in the bushes, and a vampire jumped out at her with fangs a-flying. She got her stake ready but before she got to use it, the vamp stopped and looked around with terror on its face. Terrified, it jumped back in to the bushes and ran, with her staring in puzzlement after it.

Buffy put her stake down a tiny bit. "Okay, why did it do that?" Actually it had been the third one to do that, like there was something out there that they were more afraid of meeting than even her. And whatever it was, was following her.

Then she was rushed by three vampires all at once. Caught off her guard, she still made quick work of them, dusting all three pretty quickly. 'Guess _they_ weren't afraid of the creepy stalker.' Then there was the noise of clapping behind her. Buffy whirled around, coming face to face to a figure that appeared five feet behind her. She stared.

The figure was something like she had never seen. He looked human, yet at the same time was not. There was something about him, not just his appearance. There was an air about him, something that just proclaimed inhumanness, and power. Dark brown eyes stared at her, amusement in his otherwise emotionless eyes. The white collar thing around his neck and the white fragment around his ear glinted in the moonlight, his white clothes making him stand out.

"Who the hell are you, buddy?" She commanded, glaring at him. She felt off, like a barely noticeable blanket was smothering her. It was strange.

"No one you would know." He answered evasively, moving forward, toward her. She stepped back reflexibly, then took a step forward trying to act like she had not shown any fear. She ignored the little warning bells in her head, that told her to face him was to face death, and she was better off with running even though the negative side inside of her that kept repeating _you won't make it, he'll kill you even before you take a step_ and she just told that voice to piss off.

"I know who you are. A dead man." He was obviously her stalker, who had been following her all night, and needed to be shown how it was to face a Slayer. She told herself_ you can do it, just do it quickly and he'll never see it coming. _She tried to lunge forward, taking her knife from her side, using the usual speed of a Slayer to her advantage …and then was moved back as something invisible pushed her back. The knife went flying, landing she had no idea where. But she wasn't the longest living slayer for nothing. She ducked around, twisting and coming at him again, this time throwing the tiny knife that was up her sleeve at him.

To her surprise, the knife was caught in the hand of the strange man, by the hilt. He just looked more amused, and then attacked suddenly. Whispering a word she didn't catch, he gestured sharply. This time she was picked up and thrown backward. She was thrown so far backward that she hit a tree fifty feet away very painfully, and landed on the ground with a painful grunt, and then could not get back up again. Eyes widening, she struggled but it was no use. The man came forward and stood by her. Looking down, he saw her glaring at him but only answered with a wider grin. Crouching down, he looked at her with his hands on his knees.

"I really expected the Slayer to be harder to kill. Oh well, you can't always get what you want." He smirked at her, and then there was pain and then blackness.

Moments later, she jumped up and prepared to face him again, but then noticed….something….very…very…odd. She looked down with wide eyes, feeling something that felt very strange, and saw the chain in the middle of her chest, she was struck speechless. She also noticed that she could see through herself, to the ground that she could see behind her. Wide eyed, she looked down, following the chain and shrieked. There, on the ground, was her. Well in actuality, her body. She could see that there was no sign of injury, but why was….

Then she saw that the man was still there, looking at her. He grinned. "Well, Slayer, welcome back."

She tried to grab him but he twisted out of her reach. "What the hell did you do to me, you freak?"

He laughed. "Just separated you from your body, that's all, didn't you figure that out yourself? Why, don't you like how you are now? I can't get you back into your body, sorry. So you're stuck." He cocked his head, laughing at her expression. "Oh come on. Buck up, being dead is not that bad. Sure, you have to see everyone move on and forget you, but hey, you can still watch. Just think of television show. Of course, at the moment, your body still lives, but it won't much longer." Looking down, she saw a small red pinpoint exactly in the middle of her chest.

"What did you do to me, you freak?"

"Just used a handy little liquid, it's actually quite interesting. Do you want to hear?" He sounded somewhat like an excited child showing off his new shiny toy. She huffed but stayed silent, glaring at him. He continued, not in the least bit fazed. "Well, it is designed to first destroy the veins, it goes through all the body basically melting the veins. Then after the veins, goes the organs, brain, and everything else. They all melt away, vanishing in to thin air you can say. So, any people looking for a cause of death will find a lack of all internal organs, and blood." He grinned at her. "You should feel honored, you're the first to test it out."

"Of course it only works on those that haven't been injected with the antidote, so there would be no use trying to steal it and getting me with it." Exactly what she had been thinking of doing, what was he now, some type of mind-reader?

Looking at her body, she could see that there was a lack of blood. The only sign was the small red pinpoint, where she assumed the liquid had been injected. She hid the pain of despair by her anger, glaring at him. Oh, how she wished looks could kill. He would be dead twelve times over.

"Why?" He looked back at her.

"Nothing against you personally, you must understand. It was all business, of course. Please understand." He laughed and began to walk away.

"Wait!" He stopped and looked back. She was now coming out of her shock, and was getting angrier by the moment. "What am I supposed to do now, and what is with this stupid thing?" She tugged at the chain, still attached to both her and her body.

"You're a smart girl, you'll figure it out. Break it somehow, if you want. I did mine."

"You did….you're dead too then?"

He grinned at her. "Oh of course I am, been dead for a ….couple years now. But I'm not exactly like you, though." He stopped and looked closely at her with a thoughtful expression. "You might make it. If you ever make it to Haeco Mundo, look me up at Los Noches. Just as for Xan, and you'll be taken straight to me."

Then he turned and walked away, leaving a confused and desperate ex-Slayer.

****

Buffy stared at the retreating back of her killer, who had just introduced himself as Xan. What was he talking about, about making it to Haeco Mundo? Shrugging, she filed it away for information to go over later. She had more pressing concerns to deal with. Like how to fix this. She stared at her body, trying to figure out a way to fix everything and get it back the way it was supposed to be. Her, alive, and kicking the ass out of the vampires and demons of Sunnydale. Not with her body laying there with her, spirit, soul, whatever, standing over it, wondering what to do next.

Whatever it was, Giles will fix it. She was sure of that. Then she waited. And waited, and waited. You think that someone would find a dead body a little earlier, especially in an area that was pretty busy during the day. It was hours after sunrise when the first person to actually come by in an otherwise heavily used area, a runner out for their morning, well afternoon, run. The runner, who had the music cranked up high, only looked down when she stumbled and tripped on something. Looking down, she scrambled back in horror, where she stayed until she was able to gather her wits, and nerves, enough to dial 911 with her cell phone.

Buffy watched as the police came, and the paramedics. It was recognized that it would be impossible, as far as they knew, to bring her back to life and to help her. So, with the ground and area heavily photographed, recorded and marked, it was deemed safe to be able to move her body. As she watched her body be bagged up, she thought that despite the official looking police investigation starting, it would most likely go nowhere and be deemed either a suicide or accident. She knew her town well enough by now.

She didn't want to even think of how her mother was going to react to the news, much less her friends. She had to get them to see her and understand what happened, so Giles can fix it.

She was there as the police arrived at her house, and her wonderful and beautiful mother opened the door. It dawned on her how good she had it, having such a mother who cared. She watched as the news was given, and her mother first deny it, and then collapse crying. She wanted to hold her mom, and tell her that it was all a mistake and she was there and never was going to leave. Unnoticed tears ran down her face.

She watched as a grief stricken Joyce was asked if there was someone that she could call and her mother call Giles. Buffy perked up from the slump she had not notice herself going into. Giles will fix this. But when he was told the news, she recognized the look that appeared on his face as shock, then noticed confusion, denial, and then finally sorrow. She knew that he would grieve later, and that was when she would try to get his attention so he could fix this. Now, her mother needed him.

But later, despite all of her attempts, he never showed any sign that he heard or felt her, despite how much shouting, crying, and noise she made. So she was forced to watch as he called her friends in to tell them. Both stood in shock for a moment, and then Willow burst into tears. Jesse held her as he stood in shock, trying to get Giles to just tell them that it was all a joke. But it wasn't.

Her funeral was a small affair, with only her mother, Giles, a few of the Council, Jesse, Willow, and even a few other people from school, such as surprisingly Cordelia. She was unable to reach any of her friends, to tell them that she was right there, to comfort them. She was all alone.

****

**Sad, I know. I hated killing Buffy, but I still kind of enjoyed it. (Evil grin) Just to clear some things up:**

**I changed some things up. I purposely changed some things up from Bleach. So if you see that something is different from what it is during the show, that is because I changed it to suit this fic. Please don't get mad at me, or say that I have to do some research etc. because I purposely changed those things, cause this is my fic. If you can't not get mad and pissed over the way I've changed anything, plz forgive me and get along with your life. **

**Xan, as an Arrancar, isn't the nicest person. He doesn't have a heart, so he can't be like he was in the show. Remember that. It is very important. I am not going to have a nice Arrancar!Xander. He is a little different from other arrancars, but in my mind all can't be the same. Just like humans, we are all unique. He can have deep feelings, emotions, but only for those that he chooses to have them for. Not everyone, and for humans it is very unlikely he will ever have those feelings. So, don't think that he is regular, old reliable Xander as he was in the show. Just to clear that up before hand. Here he is loyal to Aizen, who's not the nicest guy. **

**I know, I made Buffy not put up that much of a fight, but oh well. The idea I had was that Xan, and I decided to name him that because it is a much better Hollow/Arrancar/Espada name than Alexander, Alex, or Xander, is that much more powerful than she was. Also, he does not believe in dragging out fights at all. **

**Also I apologize for how sucky the fighting was. I'm not good at writing fighting scenes. And if there is any difference in the fighting than in the show, well, I just say that I suck at fighting and two didn't have any internet when I wrote this to go look it up. I'm lazy I know. **

**Also, by the last statement he made to Buffy, he means if she ever became a Hollow, evolved enough so she would actually remember (can't remember how it is like in the show, can't think right now, so plz excuse me if it isn't right, just pretend it is for my sake) and somehow made it to Haeco Mundo, then look him up. She might not, should she? Tell me in a review if she should or not. **

**Wrote this over Christmas break, with no internet in sight at my house, so no being able to check the facts, and too lazy later, so hope you like.**

**Plz be nice in reviews. I'm just a lowly fan fiction writer, I suck at writing and will never rise to the level that that writers for the show are at. **


End file.
